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Not less than 4,000 households in insurgency
affected areas of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States are to benefit from Victims
Support Fund (VSF) agricultural inputs this cropping season.
The Fund, in a statement in Abuja, noted
that its Chairman, Gen. T.Y Danjuma, made this known while flagging off the
Rain-Fed Farming Intervention in Gulak, the headquarters of Madagali Local Government
Area of Adamawa State.
Danjuma disclosed that the intervention aims to
administer appropriate support to victims of insurgency and facilitate the
restoration of their livelihood through the economic empowerment of households
in the North-east.
According to him, “The VSF agro-based intervention
provides agricultural inputs which included:
“Improved varieties of seeds, fertilisers,
pesticides and sprayer. The rain-fed farming programme will improve household
nutrition and also engender financial independence for victims who have
returned to their communities.”
Represented at the event by Alhaji Alkasim
Abdulkadir, a board member of the fund, Danjuma said the measure was to ensure
that those affected bounced back to their normal lives.
Also speaking, the Executive Director of the fund,
Prof. Sunday Ochoche, who said the beneficiaries included widows, urged them
not to sell the inputs provided them but to use it in building their future.
He cautioned beneficiaries against selling the
inputs, adding that they were provided with the best inputs as selling them
would amount to selling their future.
Ochoche noted that the beneficiaries were divided
into groups of 20 each to be properly monitored and supported on how to
properly utilise the inputs for maximum benefit.
In his remarks, the Adamawa State Coordinator of
Fadama 111, Alhaji Mohammad Kabiru, said the beneficiaries would be registered
for necessary guidance on how to use the inputs and sustain support.
The Chairman of Madagali Local Government, Alhaji
Yusuf Mohammed, lauded VSF for its support to the people, adding that the
council had constituted a monitoring team involving security agents to arrest
and prosecute anyone found selling the inputs.
Governor Muhammadu Bindow of Adamawa represented by
the Commissioner for Agriculture, Alhaji Ahmadu Waziri, also lauded VSF for the
support, saying that the state government would also provide farmers in
affected areas of the state with subsidized fertiliser.
